Main Menu

Irén Marik (1905 - 1986)

Irén Marik (1905-1986) was discovered living in the small valley town of Independence, California in 1982. Born in Szolnok, Hungary she moved to Budapest where Marik was taught piano by Béla Bartók. The long and successful search for her led to an archive of over 100 hours of sound recordings, many of which Arbiter has published and will continue doing so.

Marik’s brother Dr. Mikos Marik was interviewed by Allan Evans in 1983 at his home on the hill of Buda.

Within minutes of meeting him, Dr. Marik spoke at length about the family’s lives – one son a priest arrested for opposing the regime, several more surgeons and doctors, one an actor. He was more than glad to have someone near who had seen a sister who had defected to the United States in 1946. Irén Marik had always set aside part of her meager earnings as a piano teacher at Sweet Briar College to support his large family, whom she never again saw except for one nephew Francis, a doctor who moved to Washington state. This eighty-something year old modestly spoke about his passion for wine-making that benefitted from his scientific knowledge of bacteria and painstakingly opened a heavy basement trap-door to lead into his canteen for a tasting: “This one will improve in about ten years but I won’t be here to drink it.” Dr Marik never hinted at what recently appeared on the database of Yad Vashem’s Righteous Individuals:

Dr. Miklós Marik was a surgeon who lived in Budapest. Dr. Marik used his position as head of the surgical department of Budapest’s Verebélyi clinic to protect Jews from the Arrow Cross party. Dr. Marik admitted many Jews to his clinic, allowing them to register under false, Aryan identities. He performed small operations on these “patients” so that they could continue to stay in the clinic, under his supervision, without arousing suspicion. Among those protected in this way was Edit Mentzel, a Jewish woman upon whom Dr. Marik had operated successfully before the German occupation of Hungary. After the Arrow Cross party came to power on October 15, 1944, Dr. Marik admitted Mentzel and her father to the clinic. On October 23, 1944, Mrs. Mentzel gave birth to a daughter in the clinic’s maternity ward, and afterwards was transferred back to Dr. Marik’s department with her baby daughter, Judit. The clinic’s medical team included many antisemites, who suspected that Dr. Marik’s patients were really Jews. However, as long as the doctor came to work, they did not dare to act. Toward the end of the battles for Budapest, the Jew-haters among the staff saw their opportunity to report the presence of Jews in the clinic. Buda, on the right bank of the Danube where Dr. Marik lived, had been cut off from Pest, which was on the left bank. With Dr. Marik unable to get to the clinic, the nurses called in the Arrow Cross, who carried out a manhunt for the Jews. Many of Dr. Marik’s “patients” were taken out and shot on the banks of the Danube. Edith managed to hide with her baby Judit, and to escape. Her father was shot and wounded, but survived. The Mentzels remained in contact with Dr. Marik and his family until 1957, when they immigrated to Israel. Some years later, the contact between the two families was renewed when baby Judit, (later Yehudith Dror), visited Hungary. She found Dr. Marik, the man who had rescued her, to be in good health despite his advanced age, which was then over 90.

On September 29, 1994, Yad Vashem recognized Miklós Marik as Righteous Among the Nations.